


Hunter's constellation

by Luchtspieg



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood Beginning Ending, Childhood's Beginning Ending, Constellations, F/F, Secret Ending, Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 06:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20523176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luchtspieg/pseuds/Luchtspieg
Summary: [Childhood's Beginning Ending spoilers]Having the Hunter slain the nightmare, she decided to honour those she considered as her friends by taking them to a new world. In this new world, where death was a foreign concept and beasts would never be, she decided to give the Plain Doll a heart and a name, so she could live the life she was never offered. What she never expected, however, was for the Doll to show gratitude.





	Hunter's constellation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nozoelis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nozoelis/gifts).

It had been years since the last time the Hunter had to kill a beast in order to protect, either herself, a local or Yharnam as a whole. Long gone were the bloodstained streets reeking of burnt flesh where she would often find herself, wondering if she did the right call giving in to the ancient blood rather than death. Now, the world before her was a reflection of the world she always dreamed to live in, where she could see a flower in every nook and cranny and where, no matter day or night, she could always see the stars.

One of the first things the Hunter set in that world, once finished, was an observatory. It was a whim, an empty wish, perhaps the physical representation of what she would have liked the Healing Church to have been: a temple of study, observation, where harming anyone was out of the question. In the end, as so many other things Gehrman made, it ended up being forgotten.

Or so she thought.

One afternoon, the Hunter was sitting on a stone bench at the city’s main square, trying to learn how to play the flute —What else to do, in a world where death has never been invented?— when she heard a howl in the distance. The voice, once hollow and vibrant, now sounded mellow and harmonious just like she would have liked her songs to be like. Despite she knew what her eyes would meet once she raised her faze, her heart still jumped anyway; it was Dolly, the plain doll who went from asking whether humans loved her to love them herself.

“Come with me, dear hunter, you have to see this!”, she claimed while grasping the Hunter’s hand in her own. What once were cold, hard hands were now soft and warm, capable of melting the cold.

The Hunter threw her flute to the ground and followed Dolly.

“Is that the observatory?”, the Hunter asked, speechless. “I... I totally forgot about this building. No one would say it was me the one to put it there to being with”, she muttered.

“Well... I realised one day there was a huge spyglass on top of a building, so I decided to sneak inside to take a look at it. I realised you could see the stars with that spyglass, so I have been a little... Science? In the meantime.”

Dolly was not really familiar with many of the concepts that were second nature to humans. It was the Hunter who had to explain her about romance, friendship and kinship, but also about science, literature and music. There were many gaps in Dolly’s knowledge, for Gehrman only ever told her about the things he cared about. And the overlap with the things a regular person knew was pitifully small.

Where there used to be only a telescope, Dolly somehow managed to bring in tables and astronomy books from the library, which now were scattered throughout the telescope room. What she could not identify, however, was an exquisite star chart spread on the table next to the telescope: it was drawn in silver and golden ink, and an exquisite calligraphy named several constellations the Hunter had never seen before.

Was that a window to Dolly’s heart?

Then she looked closer, realising one of the constellations was strikingly familiar.

“What is this one supposed to represent, Dolly?”

“I like to call this one the ‘Hunter constellation’. Come, look at it!”

Dolly knelt in front of the telescope, carefully adjusting the altitude and azimuth. The Hunter wondered how often she did this, not only for how skilful she was at it, but also for not even looking the coordinates of the constellation in the star chart.

Once Dolly finished, the Hunter looked though the lens, comparing the heap of stars with Dolly’s chart. It looked like a human, holding some form of stick to the height of their head.

“Dolly, are you sure this is me? This has nothing to do with hunting; playing an instrument, maybe, but not...” Then realisation struck her: had Dolly ever seen her kill someone? While she offered herself to help her by powering up her weapons, she never had the chance to step outside the Hunter’s Dream in order to see what they were used for. She probably powered up because she wanted to be of use, thinking someone would appreciate her that way.

On the other hand, she had seen the Hunter practise with the flute thousands of times. She had seen the Hunter take a small, grey parcel and make it into a colourful city. But most importantly, the Hunter gave her a brain to understand, a heart to feel and a chance to learn on her lap. In the eyes of Dolly, she was kind and nurturing, the opposite traits to what a Hunter is supposed to be.

The Hunter tried to hold her tears back, unsuccessfully. Dolly, yet to be fully accustomed to feelings, tried to puzzle out what was wrong with her. And when she tried to dry the Hunter’s eyes with a handkerchief, the Hunter surrounded her in a bear hug.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a small story I wrote for nozoelis. There's something about the Plain Doll that awakens my motherly instinct for some reason, despite her not having any relevance to the lore and barely any personality beyond "I am a barely sentient creature". It is nozoelis' fault I ended up shipping the female Hunter with her; her fics were just too adorable.
> 
> But instinct aside, the Doll as a concept truly fascinates me. She is an example of a sentient, non-feeling being, capable of having abstract thoughts but unable to feel (unless confusion is a feeling). That made me wonder, what kind of personality would the Doll develop given a heart? Of course, curiosity would be the first thing; there is -I think- a difference between being puzzled and curious.
> 
> Stargazing was just a tribute to nozoelis, since she once said she saw the stars with her boyfriend. Looking back, however, I think it really fits the narrative of a sentient being who can suddenly feel, and finds herself engulfed by the inmensity of the sky.


End file.
